Needle and Thread

Synopsis

Needle and Thread by Ann M. Martin

When Flora and Ruby suddenly become orphans, they have no choice but to move far away from home and live with their grandmother. Luckily Camden Falls is a very welcoming place and they discover that rebuilding their lives won't be an impossible task after all - especially with the help of new friends. But having spent a happy summer in their grandmother's sewing shop, the girls now face a new challenge: the first term at their new school and a classroom full of new children...

About the Author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favourite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself. Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Pippen and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favourite thing to do is to make clothes for children.